Washington Capitals sweep Devils
The Washington Capitals hung on to beat the New Jersey Devils 5-4 to sweep all eight meetings between the teams this season. The Caps provided plenty of offense and made sure to close out the Devils down the stretch to secure the big win.
Travis Zajac gave the Devils a 1-0 lead with a goal at 3:17. The Caps would even things up at 9:16 with a nifty backhanded goal by T.J. Oshie. Alex Ovechkin and Brenden Dillon had the helpers and it was Oshie’s 11th of the season.
1-1 was the score after one with the Devils leading in shots a whooping 17-5.
The Caps took the lead at 3:21 in the second period. Off the face off draw, Conor Sheary sniped it in from the right face off circle as the puck trickled right in. Dmitry Orlov and Justin Schultz had the helpers.
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At 8:09 the Caps made it 3-1 on a tic tac toe sequence finished off with a slam dunk in front of the net by Ovechkin for his 19th goal of the season. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov were credited with the assists.
At 17:42 the Devils got one back on a goal from Yegor Sharangovich. 3-2 was the score after two periods. The Devils led in shots 14-7 in the middle stanza.
The Caps were on the penalty kill early in the third, where they’ve been successful at the whole game. Lars Eller was called for slashing at 1:14, putting the Caps on the PK. While defending, they got an offensive opportunity and cashed in.
At 2:41, Garnet Hathaway raced down the ice with the puck and fed a backhanded pass to Carl Hagelin for a chip shot for his fourth goal of the season. Dillon had the secondary assist so take that haters.
The Russians were flying all over the ice Sunday afternoon. At 5:31, Ovechkin fed Kuznetsov for his seventh goal of the season. Orlov had the secondary assist and the score was 5-2 good guys.
Jesper Bratt scored at 10:15 and Zajac made it a one goal game at 15:53 but did you think the Caps were going to lose to the Devils on Holy Easter Sunday?
The Caps hung on for the 5-4 win as Ilya Samsonov was stealler in a bounce back performance from Thursday night. Samsonov made 35 saves on 39 total shots he faced for an .897 save percentage.
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The Caps will conclude their five game tri state area road trip on Tuesday night against the New York Islanders in a rematch from Thursday’s loss.